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venchka
12-Jul-2007, 12:51
Greetings!

I have been a Lurking Member for about a year. I waited until I was a large format owner before posting.

Last Tuesday I purchased a 1953 Pacemaker Speed Graphic with a Kodak Extar 127mm f:4.7 lens and a Voigtlander Collinear II No. 4 7 7/8 in f:5.4 to 45 barrell lens. D.R.P. 88505, No. 108228, 18 blade iris.

I would like any information y'all can provide about the Voigtlander II lens. The optics are in very nice condition considering that they must be 100 years old, give or take. Is the lens useful? I did some searching here and the Collinear lenses were mentioned as being convertible. Is this true? How do you "convert" the lens? I gather it involves using either the front or rear elemts individually. What would the 7 7/8" (200mm) focal length convert to? I probably don't have enough bellows on the Speed Graphic for anything really long. I do hope that this old lens is worth using.

I'll be back with a lot more questions. It's been far too long since I had a Speed Graphic in my hands.

Thanks for your help.

Ole Tjugen
12-Jul-2007, 13:02
The Collinear Serie II covers about 60 degrees, and should be a very fine lens. It's yet another version of the 3+3 constructions of which the Goerz Dagor seems to be most famous, but with a very different design.

It should be convertible - remove the front cell, and the focal length is (normally) about twice that of the whole lens. That makes the aperture number double.

venchka
13-Jul-2007, 16:37
Oh, I did the opposite. I removed the rear cell and the focal length changed from 200mm to 300mm, approximately. I shall try removing the front cell tonight. Thanks so much for your help.

Ole Tjugen
14-Jul-2007, 05:10
If the bellows are too short to use the rear cell alone, you can use the front cell alone. The corrections won't be as good (don't shoot architecture with it) and the aperture is more difficult to estimate.

That Collinear should be completely symmetrical, so you should get the same focal length either way. But the necessary bellow extension will be very different.

venchka
14-Jul-2007, 11:02
I removed the front cell last night. Oh dear! The Speed Graphic ran out of bellows extension long before I reached infinity focus. No worries. I shall use both cells and perhaps the front cell on occasion in the interest of experimentation.

Thanks for your help Ole!